This invention pertains to data processing systems and, more particularly, to a data processing system having a program-controlled self testing capability and incorporating means for generating a system configuration map each time the self test program is exercised.
It is increasingly common in the data processing industry to employ networks of processing units coupled together by communication links. The overall processing capability of the system is distributed among the individual units of the system. This development has been made possible by the advent of large scale integration circuit fabrication techniques, which have led to the ready availability of small, relatively inexpensive microprocessor circuit modules which may be conveniently employed at many different locations within the system.
In such distributed data processing systems, it becomes increasingly important, as the complexity and processing power of each of the individual units is increased, to provide means and methods for automatically verifying the operational functionality of the units. Furthermore, as each unit is designed to provide more flexible operations and therefore is configurable to operate in a variety of different modes, means and methods must be provided to indicate the particular configuration and status of each unit to the other units in the system and to provide for updating the configuration and status information each time a unit is placed in a different operating mode.